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B.C.’s first tyrant dinosaur

British Columbia’s first tyrant dinosaur upper jaw bone as preserved in the rock. Depressions in the rock where teeth have eroded away are visible along the bottom. Credit/Peace Region Paleontology Research Centre

Fieldwork is upon our museum and at museums across Canada. It’s the time of year when our staff and volunteers go out exploring for new dinosaur finds and bring them back to the museum lab to be cleaned, studied, and displayed.

And our colleagues across the border, Drs. Rich McCrea and Lisa Buckley, have had a great jumpstart. Last week, it was announced that the first skull bone from a predatory tyrannosaur (the family that includes T. rex) from British Columbia had been found and recovered. The find was discovered by a visiting hiker, who sent photographs to the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre in Tumbler Ridge. Drs. McCrea and Buckley were luckily able to collect the specimen immediately and bring it back to their museum.

Tyrannosaurs were the top predators at the end of the age of dinosaurs, and would have eaten other large dinosaurs, such as horned and duck-billed dinosaurs.

The bone (partially eroded and embedded in a 100 kg rock) comes from the upper jaw of what would have been a roughly one-metre long skull, complete with at least 12 large serrated teeth. The specimen is probably around 74 million years old, similar in age to our own Pipestone Creek bonebed, and may even have preyed on local horned dinosaur Pachyrhinosaurus. While palaeontologists have found tyrannosaur teeth from this age in the Peace Region before, the skull bone is particularly exciting, as it may eventually allow the species of tyrannosaur to be identified.

The specimen now needs to go through the painstaking process of preparation to remove the surrounding rock, followed by a detailed scientific description. I am definitely looking forward to being able to learn more about this Peace Region predator.

Upcoming Museum Events

June 24 – Community Day (free admission to the galleries); Dino Bus service between the museum and Grande Prairie begins; Pipestone Creek bonebed interpretive tours open to the public